Marie, over at View from the Pews, has an excellent post on the "why" of the VA Tech tragedy. Basically, there is no "why" without accounting for evil in the equation. Unless the man was truly delusional, she points out, on some level, he chose to do what he did. It was certainly premeditated. It was definitely done without any thought to the identity of the victims.
As I commented to Marie on her blog post, I think I grasped at the mental illness explanation for two reasons. First, it is the label the media is putting out. That is their "why". The fact that the media is saying or implying that his emotional state, or whatever (so far unnamed) medication he may have been on, is responsible for these killings, should not be a reason to embrace that explanation. I rant about the media on here quite enough to have known better.
The second reason I began to embrace the mental illness label though, is one of raw hope. I, like everyone else, want there to be a way of preventing this type of thing from happening in the future. We look for scapegoats. The administration, the police--*someone* should have done something.
Well, someone did do something. Liviu Librescu was a 76 year old engineering professor at Virginia Tech. Long past retirement age, he continued doing what he loved. As a Holocaust survivor, he knew that evil exists and he had the presence of mind to move against it any way he could. Knowing that shootings were taking place in his building, he physically blocked the door to allow students to escape through the window, knowing that the shooter could shoot him through the door, which is exactly what happened. Liviu Librescu is being buried today in Israel.
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3 comments:
I truly believe that the herioc man Liviu Librescu saw the look of evil on that young mans face and recognised it for what it was...EVIL personified.
This is one man who KNEW what evil looks like he probably saw it enough times during the holocaust:)
In our PC climate we now NO longer call EVIL by its rightful name. We try and Camouflage it in order to soothe ourselves or is it more likely that in order to recognise evil we must also recognise the ONLY thing that can overcome Evil and that is our Savior Lord Jesus Christ. What news channel is going to state that fact? None!
I wept when I heard about that brave teacher Mr Librescu may his soul rest in Peace, and the other students and teachers who were murdered oneday as they went to school....
The most chilling thing about evil is that it has an 'ordinary' face. Take for example the Commandent of Aushwitz who after gassing thousands of Jewish people a day would go home, eat his dinner, listen to the prayers of his children, kiss them goodnight and go on...killing the next day. Horrifies me.
Anyway hon I dont mean to rant on but it is simply too dangerous to ignore the existance of evil lest it knock on our door.
Yours in Christ.
Marie
That's true. I've heard the same thing about the Nazis. Hard to imagine being "normal" and that evil, kwim? I think our attempt at portraying everything as explainable and ignoring evil just paves the way for evil like Nazism to flourish.
You know, a lot of people use a lot of emoticons very unjudiciously. I think putting a smile after ".... saw it enough times during the holocaust"
does not make any sense whatsover.
I dont think you meant it to be cruel, but it was certainly the wrong place. I grew up seeing those numbers on peoples arms. And i do agree with your general premise that there is evil, and there are people that are just plain evil. and there is really no way of explaining them.
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